Looking for help in the LA area

[beklemmung]

If anyone in the LA area (or who knows someone in the LA area) enjoys wrenching on 3rd gen and wants to help this rank amateur with some preventative maintenance, I’d love to hear from you. I will pay for the help – I’m trying to get some experience under my belt and save a little money vs having a shop do the work for me. More info in my post over in the SoCal forum here: https://www.toyota-4runner.org/so-cal/281163-looking-help-diy-work.html

 

[beklemmung]

Bumping this once for post-holiday exposure. Thanks in advance to anyone who's interested!

 

[plcfcng]

Bek everyone has to start somewhere. If you are still in school some HS or JC have classes if not there are U-tubes on almost every subject if you need some advice there are plenty people here and i don't see any shaming on people that are new to working on cars. I started out with a 200 piece craftsman tool set back in 1981 and built it up from there as needed. My advice if your working alone or with a buddy take pictures of what you are working on, there are factory service manuals available from rock auto for 25.00, keep organized place bolts back into the holes of the parts you take off or place them in baggies to keep them together, if your not sure how tight use a torque wrench( harbor frieght sells them pretty cheap on sale for most needs). The last thing when tightening up real important items like oil drain plug have the wrench in hand when you go to tighten ( A friend lost a engine on a Fire Engine the cost was about 20,000.00 ). When putting things together don't finger tight things all the way it's hard to see better to leave them loose and put a tool on it. Start simple and work up from there. :bathbaby:

 

[beklemmung]

Michael, thanks for the advice. I've watched many of Tim's how-to videos and they're incredibly helpful, and everyone on this forum is too. The reasons why I don't want to buy my own tools and dive in to this myself are (1) I live in a small apartment and don't have a garage or even a decent parking area to work and (2) The last time I did any work was when I changed the oil on my 1985 Cavalier when I was in high school, and I'm not comfortable diving in to disassembling my front suspension and rear axle seal work without someone present who has some experience wrenching, no matter how many Youtube videos I watch.

All that being said, I have a pdf of the FSM and I would gladly pay $25 for a hard copy. I see the Chilton and Haynes manuals on Rockauto, but not the FSM. If you have a link for it that would be much appreciated.

Thanks again,
Levi

 

[plcfcng]

bek The 25 dollars is for a PDF manual. You spoke of doing some preventative maintenance those thing will not take much space a friends driveway will do. Those other things are some Major tasks taking at least a full day or longer as far as the tools they will pay for themselves over time.:car:

 

[beklemmung]

You're right that calling all of this "preventative maintenance" isn't really accurate, I was a bit lazy/sloppy saying that. And some of the work I initially proposed (such as replacing the LCA bushings) is off the table now since multiple people have said it's just not worth the effort, and if the bushings are shot it's better to simply replace the arms entirely. I don't have any friends in the area with driveways (or decent tool collections), which is why I proposed using the "public" garage I linked in the other thread. Thanks for your advice and feedback, I appreciate it!

 

[4Runner4Leon]

Where are you in the LA area?

 

[beklemmung]

Leon, I'm in West Hollywood, but I'm willing to go to where the help is (or can be), which is why I was planning to do the work at that garage in Baldwin Park. I'm actually in Palos Verdes quite often since my in-laws are there.

 

[TopShelfFab]

What exactly are you wanting to do to it?

I see you mention replacing LCA's.. As mentioned above, its not worth pressing them out. I replaced mine and ill tell you from experience next time im buying new arms with bushings in them.

 

[4Runner4Leon]

Leon, I'm in West Hollywood, but I'm willing to go to where the help is (or can be), which is why I was planning to do the work at that garage in Baldwin Park. I'm actually in Palos Verdes quite often since my in-laws are there.

Looks like @[MENTION=3418320]lockedlex[/MENTION] has offered on the other thread to help you do these projects, I'd take him up on it :thumb:.

 

[HiLife]

Keep your head up OP, there are lots of cool members in your area.
Everyone had to start from square 1 and I had my share of "oops moments" wrenching early on. It's all a learning experience along the way, and more wrenching you do the more confident you'll be in tackling the more involved stuff.
I would be glad to help out if I wasn't 1600 miles away.

 

[LiLFreak]

I might nee some help too haha